May 2010

HessAmerica’s Athens is an architectural-grade pole-mounted luminaire for outdoor pedestrian-scale and area lighting applications. Smartly detailed throughout, the distinctive Euro-form of the luminaire is a blend of curves punctuated by a functional transition from luminaire to pole. Click here to learn more.

ArchitectCES.com, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Continuing Education Services (AIA/CES) provider, has added “Introduction to Tubular Daylighting Devices,” delivered by manufacturer Solatube, valued at 1 LU/HSW/SD hour. Students will learn: why daylight is so important and identify the reasons for using daylighting in commercial environments to identify the available daylighting strategies and identify their [...]

Today is Memorial Day.

Wattstopper has announced that Dorene Maniccia, Director of Policy and Industry Affairs, has been named Chair of the Lighting Controls Section of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA). The section’s focus is to promote the benefits of lighting controls including reducing energy costs and improving occupant satisfaction. Section members share experiences and work to transform [...]

For those specifying color characteristics of light sources, a few words of caution: While color temperature and CRI are important, the true complexities of a light source’s color characteristics cannot be captured with a few numbers, which is why there is no substitute for seeing the lamps in a given application. A separate mockup with [...]

Light is actually made up of colors. For an object to be perceived a certain color, that color must be present both in the object and the light striking it. Because of this, choice of lamp can influence how colors are perceived in a space. This means that perception of objects in the space is, [...]

NEMA’s compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) index reversed a negative trend that dated back to the first quarter 2009, registering a 3% year-over-year increase. Conversely, the incandescent lamps index fell to its second lowest level on record showing a year-over-year decline of 2.2% during the first quarter of 2010, which maintains a three and a half [...]

LEDs Magazine just reported that the Department of Energy caught a fake Lighting Facts label on an LED lamp displayed at LIGHTFAIR. The lamp was manufactured by Greenlite, based in Montreal. The company is not an SSL Quality Advocates partner and should not be using the Lighting Facts label. Be sure to take a little [...]

Excessive luminances or luminance contrasts may also lead to a visual sensation called glare, which, even though it is also light, can impair or disable vision rather than enable it. Glare is categorized as several different types according to its effects. Direct glare is caused by directly viewing a light source, such as a bright [...]